Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System - CaSSIS

Welcome to the web site of the Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) built at the University of Bern. All you need to know about CaSSIS can be found on these pages.

Are you looking for information about the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter mission to Mars CaSSIS is a part of or learn more about CaSSIS itself please visit the instrument page.

Should you be interested in the science that will be done with CaSSIS or want to download data (when they come in) to do science please visit the science page.

If you are seeking media information you will find information on the press page.

Would you like to contact us and learn about our team then the about us page is your destination.

News & Events

CaSSIS Flight Software Upload

CaSSIS will be switched on on Tuesday (20 March) for the first time in more than a year. The spacecraft is close to its final orbit so it is time to prepare for the prime mission. First task will be to upload the new flight software version - FSW V1.0.3. If all goes well, the first images from the new orbit will be taken on 25 March. The observations are test frames and the targetting will not be correct but they will show whether we have survived aerobraking or not.

Nicolas Thomas18.03.18

Victoria Roloff

Our close friend and colleague, Vicky Roloff, unexpectedly passed away last week. Vicky was a key member of the CaSSIS team in Bern and worked tirelessly for the project on instrument testing and calibration. She will be deeply missed by us all.

Nicolas Thomas23.02.18

CaSSIS Science Team Meeting in Padova

We held a team meeting in Padova (hosted by co-PI Gabriele Cremonese) where we discussed operations planning for the coming few months. Most of the attendees are here in the picture.

23.02.18

Science image of the week

CaSSIS took an image of the flanks of Arsia Mons in November 2016. We have now corrected this data for full colour and some misalignments in the data. The result is quite spectacular and also shows evidence of cloud above the surface. This image was used as one of the Science Images of the Week by ESA in October celebrating the first anniversary of orbit insertion.

Nicolas Thomas29.12.17

Ground Reference Model ready for prime mission

We try to verify our commands with a system that is similar to the CaSSIS instrument. We do that with our Ground Reference Model. It doesn't really look like CaSSIS but from an electrical and software perspective it is very similar. We can issue commands to it to check that we are not breaking the instrument when we send the commands to the spacecraft.

Nicolas Thomas29.12.17

Upcoming operations

We have just been informed that there is likely to be a further operation for CaSSIS from 5-7 March 2017. Until then we'll be cleaning up data and improving the calibration for release to the public in a few months time.

Getting stuff into archives for a public release is a time-consuming job and neither ESA nor we have too much manpower to handle that but we had a meeting last week to try to define timetables that we can meet without killing ourselves.It's coming.

Nicolas Thomas18.12.16

CaSSIS nails Phobos

CaSSIS managed to get a stereo pair with colour coverage of Phobos during the operation on 26 November. Antoine Pommerol (UBE) and Ramy El Maarry (former UBE Post-Doc. and now LASP in Boulder) made colour views and anaglyphs. Here is the colour image which shows that Phobos is relatively blue close to the crater Stickney (which is just over the limb to the left). Be aware that this is false colour indicating relative colour. CaSSIS's filters are tuned for science - not human eye response.

Nicolas Thomas06.12.16

Hebes Chasma - Improvements in Calibration

We have been working on improving the calibration of the first data. The so-called flat-field (the non-uniformity of the system and detector across the field of view) has been improved. The image here shows a composite of Hebes Chasma (seen in the movie we made on the first weekend after data acquisition) after the improvements made. It is really hard to see where the individual images are and the dust particle on the filter has been almost completely taken out.

Nicolas Thomas05.12.16

More results from the first periapsis pass - Stereo!

A pair of framelets from the first periapsis pass over Noctis Labyrinthus have been put together by our colleagues from the Astronomical Observatory in Padova (INAF) to produce a first 3D model of a surface. The images were acquired at about 7 m/px. After combination the vertical resolution should be better than 20 m and is probably a bit better than that. Thanks to Emanuele and Christina for their work over the weekend.

Credit: ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS

Nicolas Thomas29.11.16

CaSSIS First Results from Mars

Image of a crater rim to the north of da Vinci crater taken on 22 November 2016. Taken at around 7 m/px during the first periapsis pass when was CaSSIS was active (orbit 9 of the Mars Capture Orbit phase). The image is made up of a lot framelets put together. If you zoom in closely you can see that it is not yet perfect. But ...... Credit: ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS

Nicolas Thomas29.11.16

Getting ready to orbit

The control room at ESOC in Darmstadt where they will be watching over the Mars Orbit Insertion. Many of the guys in the picture are well-known to us through our regular meetings. Big responsibility for them coming. Good luck, everyone.

Successful Flight Software Update

CaSSIS was successfully upgraded to version 16 of the flight software. This sounds very boring but is actually pretty important. The previous version contained issues connected to the housekeeping telemetry. This telemetry was not being returned properly. Having fixed it, not merely does the CaSSIS team get better visibility of the instrument behaviour but ESOC in Darmstadt can see our housekeeping allowing them to alert us much more quickly if something is wrong. The image shows the output produced in real-time by ESOC's support computer. The TM was automatically calibrated to give real values.

Why wasn't this correct in the first place? Misunderstanding of the protocols.

04.08.16

SPIE Proceedings about CaSSIS

Two new technical papers about CaSSIS and its calibration have been put online. These papers were presented at the SPIE conference in Edinburgh.

The Bundesrat visits Bern and CaSSIS

The Federal Council of Switzerland visited the Space Research Division of the University to view progress on Rosetta/ROSINA, CHEOPS, and ExoMars/CaSSIS. The picture shows the CaSSIS PI explaining aspects of CaSSIS and the CaST targetting tool to (left to right) Federal Chancellor Walter Thurnherr, Bundesrat members Simonetta Sommaruga and Doris Leuthard, and new Rector of the University, Christian Leumann.

07.07.16

First image of Mars

CaSSIS obtained its first image of Mars on 13 June 2016. This image was taken from 41 million kilometres and shows the Elysium side of Mars (Tharsis is towards the right limb). At the time, Mars was roughly 15 pixels in diameter and one can see clearly the different reflectivity of the surface on this hemisphere.

08.07.16

The rotation motor moves!

The rotation motor was tested on 13 April 2016 and it appeared to work. The plot shows the position angle of the rotation motor and it seemed to be OK. Homing was successful. Images were also acquired that confirmed the motor had moved. We are continuing to analyse this.

25.05.16

Stars identified

During the first switch-on, we were able to see stars down to about visual magnitude 11 with CaSSIS in 2 second exposures. We were able to identify the starfield and name the stars using standard databases (SIMBAD). The plot shows the identified stars. The size of the diamonds is roughly proportional to the brightness of the star. The coordinates (x and y) give the detector positions for the stars.

25.05.16

First Switch-On of CaSSIS

CaSSIS successfully switched on. Data were acquired. More to come in the next few days.

Setting Default Window Sizes and Positions on the Detector

We are just setting the default window sizes and positions on the detector. We need to specify the rows that will be returned to give us the four filtered images. The filters are fixed above the detector. Antoine has looked at this and provided the numbers. They will be 354-633 PAN; 712-967 RED;1048-1303 NIR; 1409-1664 BLU

CaSSIS switched on

CaSSIS switched on in Baikonur. Seems OK but we need to check in detail.

30.12.15

TGO now in Baikonur

TGO has been transported to Baikonur.

22.12.15

System Verification Test

The System Verification Test (SVT) has been completed. CaSSIS commanded from Darmstadt by ESOC. Instrument in Cannes on the spacecraft. We acquired 44 images and 1 incomplete image. Couple of bugs were found but it looks pretty good. Example image is below. Yes. It is dark. The aperture cover was on!

22.12.15

Press Conference

Press conference to show spacecraft is ready to ship to Baikonur.

..... and a quote or two ...... http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34919025

25.11.15

CaSSIS on the spacecraft

CaSSIS is now on the spacecraft!!
No pictures ... not allowed ..... CaSSIS is on the spacecraft.

13.11.15

Arrival in Cannes

The cans are in Cannes .... I feel a tune coming on.

09.11.15

Ready to go

Delivery Review

ESA are just leaving after the Delivery Review Board meeting. The meeting closed with us being given permission to ship to Cannes!!! This is not acceptance to fly. That has to go through the flight acceptance review and we still have to justify some waivers and ..... stuff. But the truck leaves on Monday morning as planned.

06.11.15

The Mass of CaSSIS

Metrology. Centre of gravity, mass and moment of inertia being measured.
Update: Mass is 18.009 kg (300 g over our original guess = 1.7%... not bad.)

The Team

The CaSSIS team in Bern (minus 4 guys who were busy elsewhere and Harry without whom .......)

04.11.15

Heat Test of Electronics

We have to check whether electronics components get too hot when they are run in vacuum. You have no air to conduct heat away in space and so things can get hot really fast. Our thermal IR pictures show that the heat sinks we are using to keep the power supply voltage converters cool work pretty well.

12.08.15

Coated Electronics Boards

The electronics boards are coated and in their frames ready for final integration. However, first our Hungarian colleagues will arrive tomorrow for flight software debug. So we stay open for the moment just in case we have a hardware issue.

PI lab visit!

Electronics Boards Inspected

Inspection of the electronics boards by ESA completed. They are now in coating and will be integrated into the electronics box this afternoon.

07.08.15

Power Converter Module Arrived

The flight model power converter module has just arrived. Our Polish colleagues from SRC, Warsaw, are here to supervise the integration with the other flight boards. We are not expecting major problems because they already delivered us an engineering board which is very similar. However, it has to be tested in the next 2-3 days.

Weekend Support

Teams that work over the weekend require "support".

02.08.15

Interface Plate

The interface plate has been attached to the tripod ready to mount the FPA to the telescope. Why do we need this? Well the telescope is carbon-fibre and the FPA is aluminium - so we have a mismatch in the coefficients of thermal expansion. This hardware helps us solve that problem.

01.08.15

Telescope Ready for Collimator

Telescope on the tower ready to be aligned with the collimator. FPA is currently being integrated with its radiator and will go on the telescope for the first time on Monday morning.